Our prior application WO 2014/188221 discloses robots for spraying expandable foam material. The present application discloses electromechanical arms that are alternatives to previous robotic vehicles.
It is known to use robots to carry out operations remotely for example in dangerous environments such as nuclear reactors, to view and operate within inaccessible areas such as pipes, or even in medical applications for non-invasive surgery. Known such robots are fitted with or take the form of a robotic arm suitable for carrying out these operations.
However some of the robotic arms of the prior art have a number of disadvantages:                The robot arms are of a fixed length or number of joints, or if modular in nature are normally limited by the length the arm can be extended before they become too unwieldy or the system does not work;        Usually the arm is not self-contained, and they have bulky supporting infrastructure resulting in setup and transport issues, and they cannot easily be handled by a single person;        The robot arms tend to be overly complex requiring sophisticated control systems that abstract the task in hand. This means it is often unintuitive for an operator to simply pick up and carry out a task; and/or        They either are self-contained units which require their own propulsion unit, which creates traction, power and navigation issues, or are unpowered and are therefore limited in how they can access a space.        
An alternative is for operators to use hand tools or powered tools, which in contrast to the robotic devices lack the sophistication and flexibility of these devices. These devices tend to be highly specialised for example chimney cleaning tools or a boroscope for inspecting sewers. These devices tend to be limited in their reach and operating envelope, and usually only where there is direct line of sight.
The present disclosure, at least in some embodiments, seeks to provide alternatives to the devices of the prior art.